AHS' HealthCorps students host fair to teach peers healthy living

Friday

Apr 11, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Staff Reporter

Taking a pledge to lead a healthy lifestyle can be made at any age.

That’s what the Ardmore High School students involved in HealthCorps believe and strive for each day. Today, the HealthCorps students will have a chance to educate fellow high school students on different ways to live a healthy life through the first health fair in the school cafeteria.

“I hope they learn proper ways of healthy living,” says Haley Scheerger, a freshman. “We have a booth that talks about how to read and understand nutrition labels.”

Understanding nutrition labels is not the only piece of valuable information high school students will pick up at the superhero-themed health fair, Scheerger says.

There are 10 booths that will be manned by students introducing a variety of healthy tips in a fun and interesting way.

Beginning at 1 p.m., HealthCorps students will be dispersed throughout the cafeteria, each designed to introduce a different health topic to students. One booth stresses the importance of grains in a diet, another covers the power of positive thinking and one booth looks at sugars in popular drinks like Mountain Dew and sports drinks. There will also be five different community groups set up at booths to talk with high students who stroll through the health fair.

Ardmore’s HealthCorps Club began this past fall. The new organization aims to teach students about nutrition, physical fitness and mental health. The program is currently in 62 schools in 13 states, and the organization was founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz and his wife, Lisa. The AHS HealthCorps coordinator is Bethany Maddox.

Freshman Jarett Mitchell says many of the HealthCorps students are hoping the event will be a success and become an annual event.

“This is the first big thing our club has done all year,” Mitchell said. “We have been planning it for a long time.”

Mitchell has teamed up with freshman Candace Witt for their booth, which will discuss scents and how different scents can affect emotions. Specifically, the two will review lilac, vanilla and citrus. They will also make an all-natural “superhero” scrub that will remove dead skin to expose healthy skin, the pair said.

Fellow classmate Etana Walton will be stationed at the positive-thinking booth. Her plan is to encourage students to “keep their head up and ignore life’s unpleasant situations.”

“We want them to point out their own positive qualities,” Walton said.

One booth features a superhero obstacle course at which students will wear “padded” suits for the feeling of “extra weight.” The hope is that participants will realize the added difficulty of the obstacle course for those overweight.

The HealthCorps students said the superhero theme was selected because those characters possess more than extraordinary talents. Superheroes support a healthy lifestyle, the students said.

All students who participate in the health fair will be encouraged to think of their own superhero name and power. Additionally, all students will be given a booklet to collect stamps as they walk through the health fair. If students receive a certain number of stamps, they will be eligible for a free smoothie or a prize.

Since Ardmore’s HealthCrops began, students in the club have participated in yoga classes, cooking classes and community service. The students say it is a great organization for learning new things and meeting new people.

“You learn a lot about health and you can share it with other students,” freshman Kristina Garcia said. “Ms. Maddox teaches it in a fun way.”